Khensu-Ra Love El
Using only my post-meal blood sugar responses, I was determined to uncover how the foods I ate affected my body and overall health as a non-diabetic, African American male. This was particularly important to understand during the times of me being at the epic center (New York City) of the COVID – 19 Pandemic.
Description
As a creative technologist, I have always been interested in investigating preventative methods of diseases that have historically plagued the African American. Including, but not limited to, heart disease, diabetes, and strokes. I decided to use my thesis as an opportunity to do just that. In my personal experiment, I was determined to understand how the foods I ate affected my blood sugar. This effort would ultimately help me understand how my body responds to food and what gives me the best odds of not succumbing to the aforementioned illnesses. This experiment was executed by developing a simple iOS mobile application. Specifically, the app would track my blood glucose food responses and visualize them for quick and easy interpretation. Ultimately, it is my hope that my experiment will help me gain a better understanding of myself and the foods I consumed. At the start of my research, I was unsure about which of my vitals I’d use as an indicator of how my body reacted to foods. That all changed after reading The Personalized Diet. This text pulled back the curtain on how revealing a post-meal blood sugar response (PMBSR) could be in helping me understand the foods I ate. What is more, I was also informed about how a proper analysis of my PMBSR could help me steer clear of heart disease, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. For those reasons, I decided to use blood sugar as my sole barometer. As I conducted research on mobile app solutions that did similar things I wanted to accomplish with my experiment, one stood out in particular. The One Drop app helped users affordably manage diabetes and other chronic illnesses. But unlike most apps out there, One Drop also did it in such a way where it presented vital information in a clear and cogent way. Their simplistic user interface design helped me set the standard of making sure as I designed my own app, I would not overwhelm my screen with impertinent information. Therefore, One Drop was my greatest inspiration while designing and developing my app. All in all, this personalized experiment set a strong basis for the research I plan to continue to explore post ITP.
Classes
Presentation Video
https://kle280.wixsite.com/itp20